THE PATHWAY
We’re all friends here, so we can speak to each other honestly. Which actually sounds like the opposite of what friends do, but it’s a nice thought so let’s stick with it: all of us reading or writing this are poorly and need help. Outside, it’s a beautiful day, while inside, Big Sports Day is on the telly and we’re now experts in synchronised diving, pistol shooting and E. Coli bacteria, educating those around us with the devastating scope and penetrating originality of our insights.
Football, though, is a potent sickness, a lifelong affliction easy to contract and almost impossible to shake that has seemingly sane(ish) people gibbering and slavering like heat-struck honey badgers, desperate to scavenge an elusive sense of meaning from the rotting carcass of human existence. Which, of course, brings us to Chido Obi-Martin, who will soon join Manchester United from Arsenal – to the respective ecstasy and agony of both clubs’ famously placid support. Tensions were already edifyingly high following Arsenal’s 2-1 victory in the pre-season game between the sides – internet sages have been exchanging epithets and aphorisms since the corresponding encounter last year, centring on who knacked whose players worse – but things have intensified since, grown adults sharing tantrums or luxuriating in credit for errors or achievements that have nothing whatsoever to do with them.
Like Folarin Balogun, James Wilson and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas before him, Obi-Martin has been unfathomably successful at age-group level, so the crowing excitement is understandable: 10 goals against Liverpool’s legendary under-16s, along with 32 goals in 18 games for Arsenal under-18s, can translate to nothing other than a glorious Premier League career. And though it seems strange for an ambitious youngster to depart Mikel Arteta’s unstoppable band of potential winners, it of course makes perfect sense that he joins Manchester United, whose success in nurturing players and personalities has defined the last decade.
Consequently, United were able to convince Obi-Martin that, though he is not Dutch and has never previously worked with Erik ten Hag, the better pathway to first-team football lay with them, Arsenal’s phalanx of non-goalscoring centre-forwards offering no apparent opportunity for a burgeoning goal-machine. On the other hand, Ten Hag’s squad represents the perfect incubating environment for a hungry, ambitious talent, boasting two young strikers – Rasmus Højlund and Joshua Zirkzee – bought for colossal money and at least two years shy of being binned off as abject failures. Which, er, brings us back to where we started …
QUOTE OF THE DAY
That would be the biggest loss of face in the history of football, if I said: ‘I’ll make an exception for you’” – amazingly, after deciding he needed a break from the unbearable grind of football, Jürgen Klopp has no plans to give up playing padel and lying on a sun-lounger in Mallorca to take on the England job.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden and the Football Weekly pod squad for a football finance special before the new season begins.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
I’d never previous noticed the link to the terms and conditions for (y)our competitions in the letters section. I notice that item 20 states that content must not be distasteful or offensive. Well, what’s the [snip]ing point, then?” – Steve Allen.
Can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out to Dedric Helgert of USA USA USA (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) that nobody would spend a dime to watch ‘Hotspurs’ since no such soccer team – or at least, none felicitously referred to as Tottenham – exists?” – James Humphries (and no others).
Is Jack Grealish (yesterday’s Quote of the Day) the only footballer to cover his magnificent calves with long socks when not playing but expose them while on the pitch? Seems perverse” – Mike Hulse.
With Steve Coogan cast as Mick McCarthy (yesterday’s Football Daily), and England looking for a new manager, I think England should hire Steve Coogan as the interim on the basis he acts as Mick McCarthy for all games. Might not be successful but would be interesting (or hilarious) to see how Roy Keane – from his role as a pundit – would react. Football, after all, is meant to be entertaining” – Andy Gill.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Steve Allen. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
RECOMMENDED BUYING
Big Website’s top, top, cartoonist David Squires has a new book out soon – it’s called Chaos in the Box and looks as good as you might expect it to be. Taking us from 2018 to the 2024 Euros, Squires tackles the big questions: is Emo José Mourinho doing OK after his latest ride on the managerial carousel? How many more teams will be lucky enough to be bought by “benevolent” billionaires? Will Manchester City ever let anyone else win the Premier League again? And how does Fifa continue to be laughably inept in almost every way imaginable? You can pre-order a copy in the Guardian Bookshop for a reduced price of £11.99. What are you waiting for!?
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